Cross cultural understanding through film

 One of my friends recently watched the new Godzilla vs Kong movie and was totally confused. Which was a shame. My family absolutely was thrilled by this movie. We were hooting and hollering and just - beyond happy watching it.  So what accounts for the different experiences? A lot of it has to do with the knowledge base you bring to a movie and the cross cultural differences that occur in the franchise. 

Godzilla and Kong movies have been an ongoing dialogue between east and west since their inception. This doesn't just happen with these films, but - Japanese godzilla is so much different from USA godzilla movies and same with Kong. Filmmakers from USA and Japan literally make these movies in response to the other country's movies. In the original Japanese Godzilla vs Kong movie which came after the USA kong films, Kong is an enemy of humanity that Godzilla saves Japan from. In USA movies, Godzilla tends to be the enemy that Kong saves us from. In this one - they finally reconcile. We expected this - as a USA movie - to have Kong as the protagonist - which it basically did, but then it shifted about 1/3 of the way through and became WAY more Japanese in it's story telling style and point. That may be why it was confusing. This was a USA movie, that attempted to reconcile the conflict between the USA and Japanese films. But Japan has moved so far past thing with Shin Godzilla. But it was still lovely to see!

The movie was coherent but only to people who understood it. It's probably not that you weren't paying attention. It's more that you may not have understood the story telling short cuts and references that were made and not knowing the context of the history of these films as a dialogue between USA and Japan. Also, the first third of the movie was frustrating. The story was told in a Japanese format (ie: dichotomy into synthesis - which USA audiences find - difficult to follow as that is absolutely NOT how we tell stories). So - cultural story telling differences were present. Finally, it was over the top ridiculous which required a LOT of suspending of disbelief to just - allow the movie to be what it was and not what you wanted or were expecting it to be. Like I said, once we stopped fighting it and just allowed ourselves to accept the premise and the fact this movie was a mashup, the movie became not just enjoyable but insanely so and surprisingly deep for us. I haven't felt that joyous and satisfied coming out of a movie since Wonder Woman.

I liken this to people watching bollywood movies and being super confused about the dance sequences. If you don't know what other movies the film makers are referencing and why - it's not that you aren't paying attention, it's that what they are saying is being spoken in a language you don't understand and in a format that doesn't make sense. The dance sequences in bollywood are hugely important and are basically story telling shortcuts that tell us a lot about character motivation while paying homage to other movies and movie makers. It's a dialogue with the past into the present. Those dance sequences are often doing 5 things at once for the film maker and the audience. To people who know and understand the references, it makes a lot of sense and bring a lot of joy. But if you a) haven't encountered this form of story telling before and b) don't know the references to know what other movies are being invoked and more importantly WHY - all you see is a bizarre dance sequence that makes no sense at all to you.